The present invention relates to a cable connector. Conventionally, cable connectors, such as FPC connectors, FFC connectors, are used to connect flexible flat plate-like cables which are called flexible printed circuits (FPC), flexible flat plate-like cables (FFC) or the like (refer to, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 2001-57260).
FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view showing a main part of a conventional cable connector.
As shown in the drawing, the cable connector includes a housing 301 made from an insulating material such as synthetic resin, and first terminals 302 and second terminals 303 which are made from a conductive material such as metal and held by the housing 301. On the top surface of the housing 301, an actuator 304 made from an insulating material such as synthetic resin is disposed. The actuator 304 is rotatably attached to the housing 301 and is rotated between a closed position shown in the drawing and an opened position. In this case, the flat plate-like cable 305 is inserted in the housing 301 from the opening thereof, with the actuator 304 at the opened position. Once the cable 305 is inserted all the way to the end of the opening, the actuator 304 is rotated by an operator's finger or the like to the closed position. Then, a locking portion 306 of the actuator 304 is engaged with a locking portion (not shown) of the housing 301 so that the actuator 304 is locked. Thus, the cable 305 is pressed by the actuator 304 from the top, and the connection portions exposed on the bottom surface of the cable 305 comes into contact with the first terminals 302 and the second terminals 303, which make them electrically conducted with each other. In addition, the attitude of the actuator 304 is fixed.
When such a connector is actually used, an operator handles the cable 305 connected to the cable connector in an unexpected direction, and, for example, the cable 305 may be pulled in the direction shown by the arrow in the drawing. Even in this situation, the locking portion 306 of the actuator 304 and the locking portion of the housing 301 are not disengaged because of the principle of leverage; the distance between the locking portion 306 and the rotation center 307 of the actuator 304 is longer than the distance between a point 308 where the pulling force is applied and the rotation center 307. Therefore, unwanted opening of the actuator 304 due to handling of the cable 305 is avoided.
However, in the conventional cable connector, by engaging the locking portion 306 of the actuator 304 with the locking portion of the housing 301, the attitude of the actuator 304 is fixed. This makes the structure of the actuator 304 and the housing 301 complex. Also, since the actuator 304 is rotated towards the entry end side of the opening portion of the housing 301 in order to bring the actuator 304 to the closed position, operability is reduced when this structure is applied to a so-called straight-type connector where the opening portion of the housing 301 is mounted in the perpendicular direction to a substrate.
The present invention is directed to an improved flat cable connector with a rotating latch member that avoids the aforementioned shortcomings.